Here's a new story, set a few years into the future.

The front page of Scientific American. The headline story: "Rats out of favour." After decades of being the #1 research animal, scientists are no longer interested in experimenting on rats. A more ethical, caring kind of scientist has emerged. Society has changed, and scientists have changed alongside it. Emphasis has now been placed on developing supernatural powers, and rats are not deemed suitable. Instead, science turns its attention to chipmunks.

We see a few scenes of the early days of developing supernatural powers in chipmunks, and then years go by. The chipmunk future arrives.

We see a chipmunk floating across a forest, randomly setting trees on fire. We see another chipmunk teleport from New York City to Brazil. A third chipmunk transforms itself into a cascading waterfall of luminescent atoms, and then relaxes with a Rubik's Cube.

No one is surprised by any of this. Supernatural chipmunks have become the norm.

But into this world comes a new kind of chipmunk. A chipmunk with a brand new skill.

A chipmunk is born who can eat peanuts.

The other chipmunks start to gather. Some arrive in small spaceships. Some fly. Some just materialise on the spot. They come. Wherever they are, they come.

A hushed silence falls, broken only by the sound of peanuts being chewed.

We see a huddled, awed collection of chipmunks as they observe The One Who Can Eat Peanuts. As if in tribute, several chipmunks silently burst into flame.

Eventually tragedy strikes The One Who Can Eat Peanuts. Surrounded by its brethren, it dies young, of obesity.

The funeral is attended by the world's entire population of chipmunks, and all the undertakers are rats.